Commentary – Updated | The hacking collective known as Anonymous renewed their war on the Westboro Baptist Church today. After the haters from the infamous church posted their intentions to picket the funerals of the twenty children killed in the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Anonymous responded by re-posting the personal and professional information for members of the church on the Internet. Now the general public can contact the church members directly and tell them what they think about people who would desecrate the funerals of murdered children.

Westboro Baptist Church has been irritating Americans for years with venom filled message about their demented version of God. According to the many closely related and intermarried members of the Phelps family who make up the majority of the congregation of the so-called church, God enjoys killing children and soldiers. They constantly proclaim God hates homosexuals and plans to destroy America for not following the Westboro Baptist Church’s twisted version of Christianity. The incredible obsession with homosexuality expressed by Fred and family seems to many as a sure fire case of “thou dost protest too much.”

Anonymous has been after the Westboro Baptist Church for several months now, hacking their websites repeatedly. Recently, they accused the church of creating a fake letter from the hacking group in order to trick other hackers into attacking the website. Anonymous warned their supporters the church planned to harvest internet addresses and sue people. Suing people is apparently the primary activity of the Westboro Baptist Church when they aren’t screaming hate at funerals.

Of course, Westboro denied the charges and taunted Anonymous as incompetent hackers. They claimed their website was protected by God. Big mistake. A few days later, while a Westboro spokeswoman was boasting about how the church foiled Anonymous on a radio talk show, an Anonymous spokesman called in and hacked the church’s website in real time on the air.

Hopefully saner heads will prevail and nothing terrible will occur if the Westboro Baptist Church shows up in Newtown, Connecticut. The State Police made the extraordinary decision to assign a trooper to each of the victim’s families to prevent unwelcome idiots from tormenting them and to protect their privacy.

It is hard to imagine what kind of person would attend the funerals for these children and promote the hate filled message of the Phelps family and their followers. While we certainly do not condone illegal activity, it is hard not to root for Anonymous as they take it to these sad, pathetic excuses for human beings from the Westboro Baptist Church. If the Church’s website is offline forever, it wouldn’t be a moment too soon for most Americans.

UPDATE 4:00 am CST

A few minutes after the original commentary was published, The Inquisitr received an email from a sender who claimed to represent Anonymous. The email is similar in content to many other “official” Anonymous emails and we decided to share it with our readers. The email included the following statement:

Just hacked Westboro’s site. Freedom of speech is one thing. But freedom to hate is another. A domain such as “godhatesfags.com should not exist despite rumblings of members picketing Sandy Hook. Those families have enough anguish to deal with

The conflict between Anonymous and the Westboro Baptist Church is building to a fever pitch and judging from the multitude of reader comments on several prominent social media websites, the public strongly supports Anonymous by a ninety nine to one majority.

no. hate speech is covered under freedom of speech. I hate what they say but I defend their right to say it.

edit.

more over; who gets to decide what is hate speech or what is actually worthy of hate?

It's not actually. contrary to what most Americans believe Free Speech doesn't mean you can say anything you want to anyone you want, anytime you want anywhere you want.

You can believe anything you want, and you can say it at the correct place at the correct times. but that still doesn't cover defamation or insulting cops or certain other things.

unfortunately in this case they more or less are allowed to do what they want to do within reason, but no they aren't allowed to say anything they want at any time. and if they go to far on their hate speech, they will be breaking laws. but they're pretty good at walking the line and not stepping over it, where they can be caught, anyway.

It's not actually. contrary to what most Americans believe Free Speech doesn't mean you can say anything you want to anyone you want, anytime you want anywhere you want.

You can believe anything you want, and you can say it at the correct place at the correct times. but that still doesn't cover defamation or insulting cops or certain other things.

unfortunately in this case they more or less are allowed to do what they want to do within reason, but no they aren't allowed to say anything they want at any time. and if they go to far on their hate speech, they will be breaking laws. but they're pretty good at walking the line and not stepping over it, where they can be caught, anyway.

Actually atleast here, it does. You can tell a police officer to **** himself. It was ruled on a state level here, as long as it doesn't fall into hate crime, or whatnot. You can say WHATEVER you want as long as you don't threaten, or do it in a threatening manner.

There was a person in Pittsburgh, gave the cop the finger and said "**** you" they were cited for disorderly conduct. He won, because "he didn't do it in an threatening way".

Actually atleast here, it does. You can tell a police officer to **** himself. It was ruled on a state level here, as long as it doesn't fall into hate crime, or whatnot. You can say WHATEVER you want as long as you don't threaten, or do it in a threatening manner.

Yes, but there are limits to free speech in the US. Even setting aside the free speech side of things, does the US not have laws for breach of the peace? Picketing the funerals of kids is designed entirely to antagonise and infringe the rights of others.

Huh? You do realize that the WBC has absolutely NOTHING to do with any other legitimate church, Baptist or not, right?

I never thought I'd say this about Anonymous, but in this case: Way to go!!!!

Yes, but there are limits to free speech in the US. Even setting aside the free speech side of things, does the US not have laws for breach of the peace? Picketing the funerals of kids is designed entirely to antagonise and infringe the rights of others.

WBC is very careful to push right up to the edge of what is legally acceptable. They've made pushing the envelope an art form. Oh, and laws like that are on a state or local level, not at the national level, so WBC also picks and chooses what they are going to do based on what the local laws allow them to get away with.

It's not actually. contrary to what most Americans believe Free Speech doesn't mean you can say anything you want to anyone you want, anytime you want anywhere you want.

You can believe anything you want, and you can say it at the correct place at the correct times. but that still doesn't cover defamation or insulting cops or certain other things.

unfortunately in this case they more or less are allowed to do what they want to do within reason, but no they aren't allowed to say anything they want at any time. and if they go to far on their hate speech, they will be breaking laws. but they're pretty good at walking the line and not stepping over it, where they can be caught, anyway.

you do know that rappers advocate the murder of police officers and it's legal right? It's legal so long as what they say doesn't pose a direct threat. We're talking about in America, not Europe.

you do know that rappers advocate the murder of police officers and it's legal right? It's legal so long as what they say doesn't pose a direct threat. We're talking about in America, not Europe.

They don't advocate specific targets.

Now would you please go to the capitol building or outside the white house and start a demonstration, I don't care what it's for or against, but do it, and see how far your free speech reaches.You can't say anything you want, where you want, when you want.